The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The field of portable electronic devices, such as portable music players, cellular phones and tablet computers, has seen many advancements, one of which being the incorporation of built-in speakers. Built-in speakers provide a means to emit sound without the use of auxiliary speakers or headphones.
The sound emitted from these speakers, as with all wave-producing audio transducers, has a direction. The direction of the emitted sound is mostly normal to the radiating surface of the audio transducer. This direction of the emitted sound relative to a listener is detected by the human auditory system of the listener in terms of volume and clarity. Sounds emitted in any direction other than along a vector substantially toward the intended listener will be received with reduced volume levels and interaural differences than sound emitted along a vector directly toward the listener. In other words, sound emitted in a direction not toward the intended listener will suffer reduction in sound levels.
With aesthetics, packaging, and design dictating the position of the speakers, many such devices at the present time have speakers positioned such that they do not emit sound waves towards the user when the user is viewing content on the device's screen. For example, when the speakers are located on the side or back of the device, sound is emitted in a direction substantially away from the intended listener. It would be advantageous to redirect the sound from the speakers towards the user to increase volume.
It is common to see people correcting this significant problem in various ways, including the cupping of one hand at the end of the phone and/or tilting the device to face the speaker towards the user's ear. Both methods substantially correct the insufficient sound quality, but degrade the user experience with the electronic device.
Various sound enhancing cases for electronic media devices have been designed to address this problem. U.S. Pat. No. 8,086,285 to McNamara and U.S. Pat. Application No. 2013/0048413 to Patzer, for example, both describe a protective case for mobile phones that has an extendible sound reflector. The reflector is shaped with a bend that helps direct the sound towards the user when extended. While advantageous in some aspects, the angle/bend of the reflector is not adjustable and therefore fails to provide a means for re-directing the sound in different directions. In addition, the sliding sound reflector is cumbersome to use and complicates manufacturing.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,028,794 to Freeman describes a two-piece protective case for an electronic device. The two pieces slide with respect to one another in different fixed positions. When the pieces are separated, the bottom piece redirects sound waves towards the user. Unfortunately, this approach also fails to provide a means for re-directing the sound in different directions.
U.S. Pat. Application No. 2013/0170686 to Lester describes a protective case that has a rotatable sound boosting attachment. The attachment redirects sound toward the user and can be rotated to adjust the angle of redirection. Unfortunately, the boosting attachment is bulky and adds significantly to the length of the electronic device. In addition, the angle of redirection can only be rotated/adjusted in a plane that is perpendicular to the length of the electronic device (e.g., upward and downward relative to the user when the device is used in a landscape orientation).
Other examples of protective cases for electronic devices that enhance and/or redirect sound can be found in U.S. Pat. Application Nos. 2013/0045782, 2013/0301863, 2012/0241247,
U.S Pat. No. D671493, and Great Brittan Pat. No. GB 2,508,566. Unfortunately, these references fail to address all of the issues discussed above.
Thus, there is still a need for an improved protective case for electronic devices that enhances sound quality.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.